Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Garrett

So this past weekend Ben and I drove up to Salt Lake to play with his sister-in-law Cassy, and her 15 month old son (future nephew) Garrett. The drive up was a sweaty one, due to my lack of AC, but at least we had good music... kinda. Anyways, when we first got there we visited with Cassy for a bit until Garrett woke up. Then we pretty much watched Cassy hold Garrett for the next little bit, because Garrett didn't want to play with us :(. Sometimes he would let us hold him for short amounts of time, but mostly he wanted his mama. Ben kept trying to get Garrett to play, but to no avail. When Claire (Ben's sister) and her boyfriend showed up we all went to Cafe Rio where we met up with Andrew and his friend. After dinner we sat on the lawn and played. This is when Garrett finally decided it was okay to play. All the other kids (Cassy's niece and nephews) LOVED Ben, and kept him busy the whole time. It was cute to see him play with all the kiddos, especially little Garrett. Garrett even let me run around with him on my shoulders. He loved it. Giggled the whole time, especially when I let him hit Ben's head. Here are some pictures of the day.

Monday, June 21, 2010

California!!!!

This past weekend Ben and I, along with his old roommate Ben Tingey and his wife Jackie road tripped it out to California! It was a really fun trip. We left on Thursday at 6am and rolled into Oakland, CA at about 5pm. We each took about a 3 hour shift at the wheel, and it helped the trip not seem so bad. The reason for our adventure was because Ben's other old roommate Ben Myers got married! We stayed at Motel 6 in Oakland and it was surprisingly nice! There was even a little Fisherman's Pier right behind it. Thursday night we all went to the 'rehearsal' dinner. It was at a little yummy restaurant in a place called Walnut Creek. It was so good to see Ben and Karin again, and the dinner was delicious! We sat at the same table with Ben's older sister Kristi and her husband Byron. It was so fun, they entertained us with stories the entire time!

After the dinner we went to the Oakland Airport and picked up DJ (another old roommate). Then finally after a long day of driving, we crashed! We woke up the next morning at around 6:30 to get ready for the wedding. The sealing was at 9, and we had to be there at 8:30. We got there early and kinda hung out and took pictures of the temple. The Oakland Temple is GORGEOUS!!! Seriously like the prettiest temple I have ever seen.

Karin's Grandpa sealed her and Ben, and I am told it was a beautiful sealing. Since the moment they walked out of those temple doors, i was smitten with this couple! Karin looked gorgeous in her dress, and they are just such a good looking couple! So exciting! They are finally married! Here are some shots of them and the group.

After pictures we walked around the Visitor's Center which was really cool. Then we went to Pizza Hut, got some food and took it back to our Hotel and ate and took naps. It was great. Then we had to go to the reception! It took FOREVER to get there! Traffic in California is so bad! But we finally got to Merced, and the reception was at Karin's house. It was awesome! They had a live band and a dance floor. I also ran into a family I used to babysit for in Highlands Ranch, the Spencers. It's a crazy small world!

SAN FRANCISCO!
Next up on our trip was San Fran. My back was hurting really bad, so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I could have. But it was still really fun. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Fisherman's Wharf, and drove through China Town. It was really cool. The streets there are crazy! They are so steep! My car would have like died there, so it's a good thing we didn't take it. In Fisherman's Wharf, Ben got to speak Chinese with a shop owner, which he enjoyed thoroughly. We also ate lunch at Boudin, the famous Sour Dough Bakery! It was so good!

Ben loved driving through China Town! it made him miss Taiwan.

We ended up driving home right after San Francisco at about 3pm, and got home to Provo at 2:30am. Overall it was a great trip and fun to get away. :-)